Kevin Mattison of Arlington, Vt., talks about his 1915 International Harvester 3 HP vertical engine Saturday, July 9, 2022 at the Tri-County Olde Time Power Association annual antique gas engine and tractor show at Schoharie Crossing in Fort Hunter.

FORT HUNTER – The distinctive poof, then snort, then poof, then snort again sounds of antique ‘hit-and-miss’ gasoline farm engines permeated the 45th Annual Antique Gas Engine & Tractor Show at the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site on Saturday.

Don Bernaski, president of the Tri-county Old time Power Association, said it’s a little pricier this year to run a gallon of premium gasoline through the more than 100-year-old gasoline farm engines put on display during the annual show, but most of the old engines were designed to be so efficient they can idle for 9 or more hours on a single gallon of gasoline.

“It don’t cost much,” Bernaski said, looking out at several of the antique engines on display as their spinning flywheel engines turned belts pumping a small amount of water. “What they mean by ‘hit-N-miss’ is most (gasoline engines) fire every time, but-N-miss engines, like mine, will only fire about every 25 revolutions (of its flywheel ) to make power. It fires its piston — goes poof, poof, poof — but in the meantime it’s not using no gas, all it’s doin’ is free-wheeling, and that’s the object of hit-N-miss years ago — so they can save gas. They can put a man on the moon now, but they can’t save gas.”

Bernaski said the Tri-county Old time Power Association has been around for so long its members have forgotten what the third county after Fulton and Montgomery is in the title of their group. His best guest is it was Herkimer County.

Hit-or-miss might be a good description for attendance at many Antique Gas Engine & Tractor Shows, events which still occur with some regulatory all over the U.S. as people passionate about history and fascinated by the stationary internal combustion engines commonly used on farms at the turn of the century gather to exhibit their old engines and talk to other collectors about how to acquire the old engines and how to restore them.

Saturday’s 45th annual edition of the Tri-County show was supposed to be paired with Schoharie Crossing’s “Canal Days” event, but Bernaski said that was canceled, he was told , due to too many vendors canceling. He said his group’s deal with the historic site included a prohibition on food vendors except for a mobile Stewart’s Shop ice cream stand, which did a robust business as picture perfect weather helped lead to strong attendance despite the cancellation of Canal Days.

“Normally we would both work together, and we had that agreement that we wouldn’t sell food, because (Canal Days) would take care of that over there, selling the chicken and the food and the crafts and the band,” Bernaski said. “But they canceled, if we’d known that earlier maybe we could have made another agreement, and got somebody to sell hot dogs or something, because we’ve got people who came here from as far away as Vermont.”

Harry Eisenhauer, of Johnstown, was one of the exhibitors who attended the show. He said he’s been fascinated by the challenge of working with and operating antique farm engines since he was a teenager. A couple of the engines he had on display were the “International Harvester Famous 4 Horse Power” engine and “Six-horse, type H, Fairbanks” engine.

“These were for basic farm work, running water pumps, corn grinders, saws,” he said.

Eisenhauer explained that the old hit-and-miss engines only perform the hit and then miss action when the engine is operating at below it’s optimal speed. He said when a load is placed on the engine it operates continuously with no coasting of the flywheel. He described some of the fun challenges of working with the engines.

“If you fine one that’s stuck, or seized-up, you’ve got to take them apart, and sometimes make new parts for them, because some parts you can find and some you can’t,” he said.

Sometimes antique farm gas engine shows become places were people find more than spare parts. In the case of Harold Keil Jr., of the Village of Oriskany Falls, Oneida County, and his girlfriend Kathy Vrooman found each other at one such show. They go to a lot of them.

“We’re on show No. 7 this summer. We usually hit about 15,” Vrooman said. “There’s so many different (engines), you can’t get bored.”

“We go all over the East,” Keil said.

Keil said he’s been a collector of the old engines since he was a kid. On Saturday he displayed his 1938 Maytag “No. 72” washing machine gas powered engine, a model commonly used on many farms before the widespread adoption of plug-in electrical clothes washers.

Keil credits his love of old gasoline powered engines with helping to keep him away from bars and drinking too much. He said he’s already pre-ordered his own tombstone to include an engraved picture of one of his prize antique gasoline powered engines, a 1919 Empire Engine.

“It’s all done,” he said, showing off a picture of the stone. “I wasn’t going to wait to die, and I’ve made arrangements.”

“I’m going to be on the backside with Mickey Mouse, and he’s going to be cremated and put into the water part of (the engine),”

“Where the cooling system is,” Keil said, grinning ear-to-ear.